English Language and Literature Commons^™

How Proto-Feminist Was George Eliot?, Ellie L. Feis

UCARE: Research Products

The Mill on the Floss shows the struggle of Maggie, a woman who values education over beauty, in a judgmental society. Maggie is shamed by her society after her cousin’s fiancé, Stephen, tricks her into running away with him. Maggie is forced to live in shame and only escapes public oppression when she dies.

Romola is the story of how a young woman who is forced rely on men for a sense of purpose and safety. Her husband is conniving and has extramarital affairs. Romola finds a happy ending when she is free from patriarchal influence and relies solely on …

Victorian Counter-Worlds And The Uncanny: The Fantasy Illustrations Of Walter Crane And Arthur Rackham, Amzie A. Dunekacke

UCARE: Research Products

I will prepare an in-depth examination of the different, often opposing ways illustrators Walter Crane and Arthur Rackham portray elements of fantasy in their fairy tale illustrations. Fantasy in fairy tales became very popular during the “Golden Age of Illustration” in Britain, which lasted from the mid nineteenth century until the First World War. Fantasy served as a form of escapism from the rigidity of Victorian society and the increasingly industrialized culture. In my examination, I will focus on how Crane and Rackham’s separate styles use or abandon elements of fantasy such as the horrific and grotesque, anthropomorphism of animals …

Always The Feminine Fool, Shelby L. Dana

Student Works

Women have often been cast as mentally unstable throughout history. It is assumed that since they are the "weaker sex," they are psychologically inept. However, many times they act irrationally because they are filling a role in which society has already placed them, not because they are insane. Author Charlotte Perkins Gilman illustrates this in her short story, The Yellow Wallpaper, as readers can watch narrator go insane after being told time after time that she already is. Some people are born mad, some achieve madness, but women have madness thrust upon them.

Editor-In-Chief Of The Laureate, Michael Bodinger

Honors Theses

No abstract available.

Animal Farm Corruption, Justin Rich

Student Works

This paper details how Animal Farm is not just a literary work comparing a farm of beast to the Soviet Union, but it has a much deeper meaning. It explains how the author, George Orwell, uses the character and the plot line to show how leadership and power corrupt a person. It also discusses how power is more easily obtained than used correctly.

"Man's Greatness": Steinbeck's Evaluation Of Nature And Nurture In His Epic Novel East Of Eden, Courtney Smith

Student Works

In his epic novel East of Eden, John Steinbeck explores the ideas of agency and morality. He presents the idea of timshel, or “thou mayest,” to show that every person makes their own choices. He expands on this idea by evaluating the age-old debate of nature vs. nurture throughout the novel as the characters interact with their “nurtures” or environments and respond based on their natural personalities. Steinbeck shows that our choices are our own, but they are influenced more by our natures than our nurtures. This is seen poignantly in his characters Cathy Ames and Caleb (“Cal”) Trask …

The Goose Girl: The Importance Of Understanding Self-Concept, Elizabeth R. Perkins

Student Works

This paper delves into the psychology behind a beloved Grimms Brothers story as retold by Shannon Hale. What makes the story so timeless? The development of the main character as she grows into her own skin and overcomes her thinking errors makes this book attractive for YA audiences who are going through similar issues.

April 10, 2016: English Department Alum Premiers 40th Feature Film, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

Chuck Bentley's latest film features a host of WMU alum as well as several current faculty members. The premiere is free to the public and will appear on PMN and YouTube shortly thereafter for those unable to attend the screening.

“See Ourselves As Others See Us”: Empathy Across Gender Boundaries In James Joyce’S Ulysses, Madison V. Chartier

Butler Journal of Undergraduate Research

Many critics originally attacked James Joyce’s Ulysses for its dark representation of gender relations. Today, many scholars consider this criticism prematurely formed and recognize that these early critics responded more to Stephen Dedalus’s antagonistic, misogynistic views in the novel’s opening chapters than to the rest of the epic and the views of the novel’s main protagonist, Leopold Bloom, who displays a much more receptive, appreciative attitude toward women. These scholars now believe that gender relations as portrayed in Ulysses actually undermine preconceived notions of a gendered hierarchy. However, this difference in character perspective is not the only or even the …

A Reflection On God And Sex: What The Bible Really Says, Howard Wagner

Best Integrated Writing

Wagner uses humor and honest self-appraisal to discuss the contrast between his burgeoning academic knowledge of the Bible and what he had been previously taught, and he determines that faith is an ongoing process.

Empathy In Its Entirety, Callie Reymann

Best Integrated Writing

Reymann critically analyzes three novels through the lens of empathy and then applies her critical analysis and observations to her experiences as a person diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome.

Conflicting Cultural Identity And The Baz Benin In Edwidge Danticat’S Claire Of The Sea Light, Kellianne Rinearson

Best Integrated Writing

Rinearson explores the connection between the gangs in Edwidge Danticat’s Claire of the Sea Light and mythological figures in Haitian folklore thus adding nuance to the discussion of Caribbean cultural identity.

A Gray Area, Lindsay Smith

Best Integrated Writing

Smith conducts a close reading of Homer’s Odyssey and presents the gender dynamics that subvert, through the depiction of a powerful Circe, prevailing attitudes of male superiority.

Best Integrated Writing 2016 - Complete Edition

Best Integrated Writing

Best Integrated Writing includes excellent student writing from Integrated Writing courses taught at Wright State University. The journal is published annually by the Wright State University Department of English Language and Literatures.

Slow Catastrophes, Uncertain Revivals, Michele Speitz, Joey Eschrich, Ariel Shamas, Graham Browning, Anna Peterson, Elisa Edmondson, Elly Gay, Hagan Capnerhurst

English Publications

A collection of research-based stories about the future, proudly published by Project Hieroglyph. The book features stories created by students in “Slow Catastrophes, Speculative Futures, Science & Imagination: Rewriting and Rethinking Sustainability,” a course designed and taught by Dr. Michele Speitz at Furman University in South Carolina.

The course and the stories in this volume were inspired by Project Hieroglyph, particularly by our first anthology, Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future (2014), which the students read and discussed throughout the course – along with a wealth of scholarly readings on sustainability, ecocriticism, international development, narrative, and ecology.

The …

Huckleberry Finn And The Picaresque As Lens Against Debt Peonage, Cory Dahlstrom

Annual Graduate Student Symposium

The literary genre of picaresque originated in Sixteenth Century Spain, but has become a prominent staple in American culture–especially post-Civil War. This project specifically discusses the role Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn played in analyzing the failures of reconstruction’s provision toward African American freedom and equality.

Susan F. Russell, Associate Professor Of Theatre Arts, Musselman Library, Susan F. Russell

Next Page

In this new Next Page column, Susan F. Russell, Associate Professor of Theatre Arts, shares plays she recommends for anyone interested in reading plays for the first time and where Amish romance novels fit into her reading repertoire.

Penelope’S Daughters, Barbara Dell`Abate-Çelebi

Zea E-Books Collection

A feminist perspective of the myth of Penelope in Annie Leclerc’s Toi, Pénélope, Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad and Silvana La Spina’s Penelope.

At the origin of Western literature stands Queen Penelope—faithfully waiting for her husband to come home: keeping house, holding on to the throne, keeping the suitors at arm’s length, preserving Odysseus’ place and memory, deserted for the pursuit of war and adventures, and bringing up a son alone, but always keeping the marriage intact. Yet recently the character of Penelope, long the archetype of abandoned, faithful, submissive, passive wife, has been reinterpreted by feminist criticism and re-envisioned by …

"Silence Laps Smooth Over Sound': Sound, Gender, And War, In Jacob's Room", Betsy Lawson

SEWSA 2016 Intersectionality in the New Millennium: An Assessment of Culture, Power, and Society

In A Room of One’s Own, as well as in Three Guineas, Virginia Woolf contends that the devaluing of women and the perpetuating of women’s inferiority facilitate all heroic and violent action (A Room of One’s Own, 36). In this paper, I’ve applied Woolf’s argument to her 1922 novel, Jacob’s Room, and focused on the ways in which certain sounds become gendered as masculine or feminine and devalued accordingly, leading to a masculine society that operates on masculine ideals. In Jacob’s Room, women’s voices are characterized as chatty and empty, where men’s voices exude authority and …

April 2, 2016: Grace Tiffany Book Launch Party On Shakespeare's 400th Deathday!, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

Join Shakespeare and fiction aficionados on Shakespeare's 400th Deathday at Kazoo Books, 2413 Parkview Avenue. Saturday, April 23rd, at 1 p.m., at Kazoo Books, Shakespeare scholar and author Grace Tiffany will read from her new novel about the Gunpowder Plot, Gunpowder Percy, and local Shakespearean actors Chuck Bentley and Kitty Kashniewicz will perform explosive Shakespearean dialogues.